Red Wine and Satin Sheets
by OneMoreGirl
Summary: Set postHeartbreak, so there are some spoliers for the episode. Explores what happens when Tony tries to comfort Kate, [Tate].


_Written post Heart Break (2x08) so it contains a reference or two to the episode._

* * *

When she'd asked him out for coffee that afternoon, he'd never expected it'd end like this. Normally he'd boast about his conquests, but this one felt different. It felt wrong, like both of them had been all too willing participants. Running his hands over her naked body next to him he half expected her to shiver and pull away, but instead she lay there deep asleep looking as sad and broken as she had that afternoon. 

_She was half an hour late, he was leaving when he saw her come in. Her puffy red eyes immediately sent his mind into overdrive as he tried to think up the best wisecrack._

_Minutes later, she was on her way to an all out sob fest when he'd practically dragged her out of the coffeehouse and back to his place. An hour later after a couple of glasses of red wine, she'd apologized, joking about the whole thing._

"_I just can't get the look on his face out of my head, it's like he really wanted me to kill him." Her words hung heavy in the air between them. Tony gave a smile trying to dispel their sobering effect, but it came out more as a forced grimace and he dropped his gaze to the marble beneath his fingers._

"_I'm sorry," she muttered quickly, shifting uncomfortably._

"_Don't apologize," he said almost habitually, "it's a sign of weakness," they finished together, the first genuine smile of the evening flickering across her lips. He laughed and nodded, "you know Gibbs is right about that," Tony continued as he watched her drain the remainder of her glass._

_She shook her head and pursed her lips as the conversation began to flow, jokingly and light between them._

He must have been lying there like that for longer than he'd though because suddenly she was shifting and stirring under the gentle weight of his hand. She rolled over drawing the sheet around her as she sat up.

"Leaving already," he said trying to sound light and teasing. She jumped obviously unaware that he'd been watching her.

"Tony," she said color rising to her face as she turned to face him.

He reached to brush the hair around her face and she pulled away. "Tony, I'm sorry; I should have never asked you, this was a mistake."

"_I need you," she gasped in his ear as her nibble fingers found the buttons of his shirt, "don't make me beg, please."_

_At first he'd resisted, told her she was too drunk to know what she was doing, but she was persistent, and the feeling of her lips against skin lit his soul on fire._

"_Kate," he'd groaned and she gave a devilish smile, leading him seductively down the hall, she assumed lead to the bedroom._

He nodded and found himself unable to meet her gaze. More than anything, he wanted to take her shoulders and shake her and tell her that she was being stupid, that this could work out. He sighed and traced the contours of the satin sheet. No matter how much he wanted to tell her, he knew it wasn't true, it'd never work out. He wished for a moment they could just pretend.

"Don't leave," he said fighting back his growing conscious, "don't leave just yet."

"Tony," she sighed, "I need-" she cut herself off, picking at a stray thread on at the corner of the sheet.

"You said you needed me," he said almost pleadingly, "Kate…"

She turned to look at him and he could see that haunted look on her face, that deep heartbreaking pain resurfacing for the second time that night.

_They lay sweat slick and breathing heavily when the first sob had come, a deep gut wrenching sob that shock the entirety of her slender frame. She'd instinctively curled towards him burying her face in his shoulder too lost in grief to care what he might say. He'd held her till she'd slept; rocking her gently until he was sure she wouldn't wake._

_Eventually he'd fallen into sleep with her, his fingers entwined in her hair, his arms wrapped protectively around her._

_She'd waken for the first time, still drunk, her head pounding from the tears and the beginning of a hangover. Burying her face back in his shoulder, she'd closed her eyes and fell back asleep vowing to deal with the fallout later. For now she was content with this feeling of belonging that was beginning to replace the usual emptiness._

"I do, Tony, but not like this. We can't…What if?"

"Screw it," he said definitively, "I'd give my life for sex like that anyday."

She laughed, her eyes crinkling in the corners like they did when she was really happy. "Screw you," she corrected crawling over the bed to greet another kiss.


End file.
